Meet the DREAMers confronting presidential candidates

Hector Salamanca, center, talks to Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley during one of his campaign stop at Trinity United Methodist Church in Des Moines.(Photo: Brian Powers/The Register)Buy Photo

In one video, Monica Reyes puts her arm around Jeb Bush and peers up at him. She asks in Spanish about his thoughts on DACA, a policy that grants young immigrants like Reyes temporary stay in the United States. Bush replies in Spanish,"DACA is … which one is DACA?"

In another, Reyes, 24, who came to the United States illegally from Mexico as a child, waits along a crowded rope line to ask Hillary Clinton about "Obama's delay on immigration." "Well, I think we have to just keep working," says Clinton, without making eye contact. "We can't ever stop working."

In a third, Reyes stands up at a Bernie Sanders event and asks again about Obama's delay. "I think he should have acted," Sanders says.

Attention, presidential candidates: If they haven't already, Reyes and her fellow Iowa DREAMers are coming for you.

They may come at a rally, when you're taking questions. They may come at a diner as you're shaking hands. They may come when you drop by some fundraiser. But rest assured, if you campaign for president much in Iowa, they'll find you with a camera and a question: Where do you stand on immigration reform?

Monica Reyes(Photo: Special to the Register)

Few issues loom more controversially over the 2016 race in Iowa than immigration. More than 80 percent of Republicans and Democrats likely to attend the caucuses want candidates to talk a lot about it, according to a late May Iowa Poll.

But when Reyes, a Waterloo resident, thinks of people who are in the U.S. illegally, she doesn't think of hardened criminals. She thinks of her family. She thinks of her friends. She thinks of herself.

And the next president's stance on immigration may determine whether she, her family and 11 million others like her can stay in the United States.

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In a video provided by Dream Iowa, Monica Reyes, who came to the United States illegally as a child, converses with Gov. Jeb Bush about federal policy regarding people in her situation.
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With no right to vote, Iowa millennials who lack legal residency are using their voices through DREAM Iowa, a Facebook page that Reyes and others are slowly growing into a statewide advocacy group for immigration reform.

Group's leaders can't vote, so they help inform others

DREAM Iowa counts 300 people of varying degrees of activity on its email list, but it's driven mainly by Reyes and her younger sister, Nilvia Brownson, who co-founded the group in 2012, along with their friend Hector Salamanca.

"We do our best to engage every candidate that comes through Iowa," said Salamanca, 22, the group's advocacy chair.

Later this month, DREAM Iowa will host a bipartisan panel on immigration (moderated by Register columnist Kyle Munson) in Storm Lake. Online, members have assisted young people in gaining temporary residency under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, the program announced via executive action by the Obama administration in 2012.

So far, DREAM Iowa and its constellation of supporters have confronted Democratic candidates including Sanders, Clinton and Martin O'Malley, as well as Republicans including Bush, Ted Cruz, Scott Walker and Lindsey Graham.

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Hector Salamanca, right, poses for a photo with Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley during one of his campaign stop at Trinity United Methodist Church in Des Moines on Thursday, July 16, 2015. Salamanca is part of the DREAMERS group that has been asking candidates their position on immigration laws on campaign stops.(Photo: Brian Powers/The Register)

"We're trying to get the ones, especially, who might have changing opinions on immigration or who are kind of fuzzy," Reyes said. "We really want to see what their stance is."

The group's moments with candidates vary from pleasant to tense to awkward. Candidates' responses vary from answers to avoidance to somewhere in between.

The videos go up on YouTube, and the group pushes them on social media to anywhere potential sympathizers — particularly those with a vote — might see them.

DREAM Iowa co-founder Nilvia Brownson holds a sign.(Photo: Special to The Register)

"We can't vote," said Brownson, 21, who's also of Waterloo and lacks legal status. "Someone else is going to vote. We have to let them know where the people they're voting for stand, and why that matters."

At the University of Iowa, professor Tamara Afifi has studied the way stress and uncertainty lingering over people without legal status affect how they communicate. She described DACA as a shield, however temporary, that has enabled DREAMers in Iowa to speak publicly about their status and try to affect public opinion without fear of deportation.

The 2016 caucuses mark Iowa's first since DACA took effect.

"That's why you see this happening right now — they're able to be there," Afifi said. "And they have this unique opportunity to do it."

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In a video provided by Dream Iowa, Monica Reyes, who came to the United States illegally as a child, and others ask Hillary Clinton about the president's choices on immigration policy.
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How process works: 'Bird-dogging' candidates

Salamanca, the group's advocacy chair, graduated from Drake University in Des Moines in May and took a job with the American Friends Service Committee, a liberal social reform group. It was when he first began tailing and confronting presidential candidates, a process called "bird-dogging."

Salamanca even carries around a tip sheet on bird-dogging and hopes to set up trainings for others in Iowa cities.

Good bird-doggers arrive early to candidate events with a pre-written, well-framed question, Salamanca said. They raise their hand first during Q&A times, when others are most shy, and typically travel with a partner who can record the interaction. They stay calm, he said, and often even compliment the candidate on one point or another before asking the question.

Chris Larimer teaches on Iowa politics and political behavior at the University of Northern Iowa. He said the sort of candid, bird-dog moments sought by DREAM Iowa have the capacity to take off and catch national attention during a presidential race. To do that, though, they need to capture an atypical moment with the candidate, Larimer said.

"If they are able to catch a candidate off guard, and do it in a way that's non-confrontational, and the candidate makes a gaffe — coming off as rude, not knowing the policy, or going against his or her own base — then it becomes a larger issue where people tweet about it on social media and the candidate has to answer about it. Then it is in the national conversation," Larimer said. "For the people doing this, that's the audience they're trying to reach."

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In a video provided by Dream Iowa, Monica Reyes, who came to the United States illegally as a child, asks Sen. Bernie Sanders about federal policy regarding people in her situation.
Special to the Register

While bird-dogging's primary goal is to get answers out of politicians for the general public, Salamanca said, he also hopes to affect the politicians he speaks with, too.

Many opponents to immigration reform, like King, the Iowa congressman, argue that giving those who came to the country illegally a path to citizenship rewards them for breaking the law. Others argue that a sudden spike of legalized residents in the U.S. would drain expensive federal benefits while adversely affecting the job market for current American workers. Many also disagree with Obama's decision to act unilaterally on immigration without going through Congress.

Results unclear from King confrontation

Salamanca recalls a confrontation he had with King last June at an event in Winterset. He wanted to convince the congressman that he wasn't a criminal, that he didn't have calves the size of cantaloupes. There's no indication he succeeded.

"Hector, you broke the laws," King said to Salamanca in a video captured by The Des Moines Register.

"I came as a kid," Salamanca said. "Do you think I had the intent to break the law?"

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(Photo: Bryon Houlgrave/The Register)

"Do you think it makes a difference on whether you say you had the intent or not?" King said.

"I think it does," Salamanca said.

"No," King said. "It doesn't."

That's the rub for most DREAMers: They weren't complicit with their coming to America, yet they don't feel connected to the country in which they were born.

Reyes, for her part, said she doesn't have actual memories of life in Mexico. She knows she had an abusive father there. It was bad, she said, bad enough for her mother to flee with her and her sister Nilvia. Sometimes, though, brief pictures of memories pass her mind: A dirty house. Her mother getting thrown against a crib.

For everything DACA has done for Reyes, Brownson and Salamanca — allowing them to get driver's licenses and obtain legal jobs — it's no permanent solution. They must apply for renewal every two years. Similar protections for their parents — a proposal from the Obama administration called DAPA, Deferred Action for Parents upon Arrival — remain in legal limbo.

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Hector Salamanca Arroyo engaged in a conversation about immigration reform with Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa), who was in Winterset to support Donald Trump.
Bryon Houlgrave/The Register

"I can't imagine seeing my mom in jail," Reyes said. "Yes, we did break the law when we came into this country, but we didn't do it with the intention of stepping all over American laws."

A late January Iowa Poll showed a deep divide between likely Republican caucusgoers and likely Democratic caucusgoers on creating a path to permanent residency for people living in the United States illegally. Seventy-three percent of Democrats favor the idea, but only 28 percent of Republicans do.

"A lot of people's lives depend on whether or not the next president would allow it to stay once it makes it through the courts," Reyes said. "If it does."

7 TIPS FOR BIRD-DOGGING

DREAM Iowa's advocacy chair, Hector Salamanca, uses a tip sheet on bird-dogging from the American Friends Service Committee to teach others how to question candidates. Here are seven tips from Salamanca and the American Friends group:

Arrive early: Especially with more popular candidates, it's good to arrive early and sit close to ensure you'll have a shot at getting called on during a candidate's event.

Ask early: Few people want to ask the first question at these events, so be ready to shoot your hand up as soon as the Q&A period starts.

Meet and greet: Most candidates will glad-hand with audience members after an event, a perfect chance to ask a question. "Position yourself in the candidate's path," the Friends group recommends.

Pair up: Bird-dogging can be intimidating, so buddy up. One person asks the question while the other person documents the answer.

Know the stances: Tailor your question to the candidate's specific position on an issue to prompt a more specific answer.

Show respect: "Maintaining a respectable tone will bring a more positive response from the candidate, their staff and any media present," the Friends group says.

Prepare for media: Journalists often interview audience members who ask a candidate tough questions. Be ready to talk about your issue.